16 Facts About Alister MacKenzie

Alister MacKenzie was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents.

Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War where he first became aware of the principles of camouflage.

Alister MacKenzie is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Alister MacKenzie designed more than 50 golf courses including three that remain in the 2022 top 10 golf courses in the world: They include Augusta National Golf Club and Cypress Point Club in the US, and Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia.

Alister MacKenzie was born on 30 August 1870 in Normanton, near Leeds in Yorkshire, England, to parents of Scottish extraction.

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Alister MacKenzie's father, William Scobie MacKenzie, a medical doctor, had been born and raised in the Scottish Highlands near Lochinver.

Alister MacKenzie served as a surgeon with the Somerset Regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War.

Alister MacKenzie had been a member of several golf clubs near Leeds, dating back as far as the late 1890s.

Alister MacKenzie did mention the bunkering as MacKenzie's ideas had taken into account the new technology of the day, which was the Haskell wound ball and was now being used instead of the old gutta-percha golf ball.

In 1914, Alister MacKenzie won a golf hole design competition organized by Country Life; the adjudicator was Bernard Darwin.

Alister MacKenzie then took an active interest in course improvements at his own clubs, gaining experience in the newly emerging discipline of golf course design.

Alister MacKenzie thought he had learned a lot about golf course planning from having designed camouflage.

Alister MacKenzie worked in an era before large scale earth moving became a major factor in golf course construction, and his designs are notable for their sensitivity to the nature of the original site.

Alister MacKenzie described this in one of his books as "in the 70s after 60".

Alister MacKenzie was one of the first prominent golf course designers who had not been a leading player.

Alister MacKenzie died in Santa Cruz, California, in January 1934, two months before the inaugural Masters Tournament.